Here's a look at what was making the news 25 and 50 years ago in the Hants Journal.

25 years ago (Aug. 9, 1989 paper)

• Lake Pisiquid was closed to swimming due to a health hazard.

The paper reported that it was unsafe to swim in the lake due to high levels of fecal coliforms — a mixture of human and animal feces.

• Grave robbers were digging up shrubs and flowers planted at Maplewood Cemetery. George Redden, the caretaker of the cemetery for more than 20 years, told the Hants Journal that the thieves “plundered at least seven or eight different graves” in 1989. He alerted the police and was keeping an eye out for suspicious activity.

• Hantsport council learned that it required the approval of the Dominion Atlantic Railway if the town hoped to construct a truck route to divert the heavy traffic from the downtown core.

• A third public input session was scheduled in order to gather more support and ideas for the proposed Eldridge Road recreation site.

The Municipality of West Hants purchased the property in 1988 with the expressed purposed of developing it for recreational use.

• The full schedule of events for Sam Slick Days, plus an expanded history of the popular festival, appeared in the paper.

Included in the highlights of the festival were the concerts featuring The Aviators and Tribute at the Hants Exhibition grounds, and a special visit by Canadian Welterweight champion boxer Darrell “Pee Wee” Flint, who was slated to visit the Sam Slick Dance and Country Jamboree.

• Sixty teams from across the province were to converge on West Hants for the third annual West Hants Sam Slick Soccer Showcase.

• The fifth annual Nova Scotia Town Criers Championship was going to be held in Windsor in conjunction with Sam Slick Days. The event was to be held during the Clifton Lawnfest — which was intended for adults — at Haliburton House.

• The movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was showing at Imperial Theatre.

50 years ago (Aug. 5, 1964 paper)

• Lawrence A. (Larry) Armstrong, of Falmouth, was appointed the new town clerk for Windsor. It was reported that at the age of 23, he could be the youngest person to hold such a position in Canada.

• The Nova Scotia Quarryworkers Union applied to the provincial government for conciliation services to help with negotiations between the union and Fundy Gypsum.

• Four Fundy Gypsum employees received watches for working with the company for 25 years. The men were Vincent Cochrane, Hoyt Crosby, Alex Galley and Thomas Martin.

• The Liquor Licence Board announced changes to the regulations surrounding the sale of beer. As of Sept. 1, 1964, it would become law that establishments selling beer must serve the beverage in a glass containing 12 ounces of beer at a cost of 22 cents.

• At a regular meeting of the Hantsport Division Sons of Temperance, Mrs. Geo. Frizzle was presented with a leather-cased manicure set as she was due to leave Hantsport for Frobisher Bay, N.W.T. in August.

• Forty-seven members of the Wilcox-Green families met for a reunion in Pembroke. Among the guests were Hantsport folks Miss Wilma Green, Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Wilcox, and Mr. and Mrs. Freeland Green and family.

• The Maritime Marshland and Rehabilitation Administration was selected to conduct an engineering survey of the proposed causeway between Moncton, N.B. and Albert County.